Caldara: Progressives codifying racism with civics education bill

The latest in identity politics legislation raining down from the state Capitol is House Bill 1192, which expands U.S. civics and history K-12 education requirements for history and civil government studies to add the contributions of Asian Americans, LGBTQ individuals, religious minorities and the “intersectionality of significant social and cultural features within these communities.”

For those not familiar with the ever-changing newspeak of progressive victim celebration, the “intersectionality” to be taught in U.S. civics means the overlapping systems of discrimination meant to keep oppressed people down. Because America — not most of the world like Venezuela, China, Russia, North Korea, Iran, India, etc. — is the shining example of systematically keeping people down.

Identity politics version of diversity

It’s important to note that current state law already requires the teaching of civics “which includes the history, culture, and contributions of minorities.” HB 1192 would micromanage that mandate to what social justice fanatics live for — separating people into smaller and smaller boxes, then pitting those boxes against each other in a contest of who has been most oppressed.

Since the politically correct police update terminology like Apple updates iPhones, HB 1192 also renames “Hispanic Americans” to “Latinos” and now “the” American Indians are just American Indians.

The same progressives who are hiding behind the fib of “local control” when it comes to attacking oil and gas production in Colorado are using the opposite of local control to mandate their re-education efforts onto school boards across the state. But consistency doesn’t matter to Colorado’s power structure. Political expediency does.

One would think the goal of teaching the history of racial discrimination is to instill in young, impressionable minds the lesson that discrimination is wrong and the “intersectionality” of cementing discrimination into policy is really, really wrong.

So, what my little white-male privileged brain doesn’t quite get is the blatant systematic discrimination written into HB 1192.

The difference between “liberal” and “progressive” should be becoming clearer to Coloradans. Over fifty years ago a liberal Martin Luther King Jr. dreamed of a nation where we wouldn’t be judged by the color of our skin. Today our progressive controllers want to legally mandate racial and religious discrimination.

One could assume HB 1192’s mandate to educate about the “persecution of religious minorities” means teaching why it’s wrong to force a Christian baker to make a cake celebrating a gay wedding against his faith. But I’m thinking the legislature might intend to teach just the opposite.

So, who is the arbiter in choosing who will be the villain in the tales of persecution?

Well, the bill requires a stacked commission, chosen by the governor, to oversee the indoctrination. And the governor must discriminate based on race. Two must be American Indian. Two must be Asian. Two must be Latino. Two must be African American. And one must be LGBT.

In other words, the progressive’s new law enshrines discrimination based on the color of someone’s skin.

To teach kids about institutional racial discrimination the state must institute racial discrimination.

Not quite “Irish need not apply” because if the Irish man says he’s gay, he at least has a small chance of getting appointed.

This same ploy of stacking commissions was played with House Bill 1032, the sex ed bill, which also ripped local control from school boards. You’d think it was about teaching how babies are made but it was about teaching how to have healthy transsexual relationships.

As originally introduced the “human sexuality education” bill mandated eight representatives be added to the oversight entity and required at least seven members “who are members of groups of people who have been or might be discriminated against.”

Again, I doubt Christian cake bakers are meant to be included as a member of a discriminated group.

This game of stacking “oversight entities” is a two-edged sword progressives could live to regret. It is based on the premise their lock on Colorado government is permanent.

There once was a premise that Trump could never become president too.

Should a Trump-like governor ever win in Colorado, the left is empowering him to put his idea of victims in these roles. Christian bakers all.

Jon Caldara is president of the Independence Institute, a free market think tank in Denver.